Nu-Metal is essentially a mixture of several different genres (most notably Grunge, Hip Hop, Alternative Metal, Rap Rock and Groove Metal). It is characterized by downtuned guitars with liberal use of palm muting, vocals that range from screaming to rapping (often in the same song), stop-and-start driving bass with a "funky"/slapped quality, hip hop-influenced drumming, varying degrees of electronic manipulation and roughly equal prominence of all instrumentation. The lyrics usually focus on personal crises and painful experience. Many (but not all) nu-metal bands also make use of the normally hip-hop oriented turntables as an instrument, which has had the effect of people assuming that any band that uses turntables is a nu-metal band.

Its mainstream popularity lasted until the early-2000s, when Emo took its place. More recently, it seems to be better received outside of the United States, and in American underground music, rather than in mainstream popular music. Some bands, including Disturbed, Korn, Limp Bizkit and Slipknot, generally kept and expanded their style, and remained popular, while other bands, like Linkin Park, Papa Roach, and the Deftones, abandoned the genre completely, and others still broke up and sometimes formed new bands.

Its up to debate whether or not the genre (as a whole) is metal but in the grand scheme of things it's difficult to classify. The bands that were called nu-metal did not really sound like each other. For example compare Limp Bizkit to Coal Chamber. Many nu-metal bands never quite hit mainstream success despite what some metalheads say. To be blunt, most of the hate comes from a very vocal group of metalheads/purists. The hatred runs deep though, so it will take some time until someone can say they like the genre without getting hit with Internet Backdraft by the Hate Dom / Hate Dumb. In any case there are fans of nu-metal just like any other genre and the genre was viewed as a revival of sorts, creating a whole new group of metalheads.

A full list of Nu-metal bands would prove controversial, because the term is considered to be derogatory to the point where even the bands themselves fight it (the term was first used in a Coal Chamber concert review in 1995). A fairly uncontroversial list would include the following:

Linkin Park (their first two albums are archetypal examples of the genre, while everything they've done since has been... basically everything else, though their last two albums feature elements of their earlier material; easily the most successful band on this list aside from Slipknot and maybe Korn)

Sevendust (Debatable. The band denies the label and their overall sounds is mostly just stanrdard Alternative Metal. The (very) slight industrial tinge found in the production work most likely caused them to get the label. Though a few of their songs ("Enemy", for example) are undeniably part of the genre.)

Upon a Burning Body (like Suicide Silence and Whitechapel, they are primarily a deathcore act but have always had some detectible nu elements, but Red. White. Green. is where the nu elements really became prominent)

Nu-Metal provides the following examples of tropes:

Alternative Metal: Nu-metal started off as a subgenre of this, though grew in popularity to the point of it being counted as a separate genre. Several alt-metal bands, such as Faith No More and Primus served as huge influences to Nu-metal.

Avant-Garde Metal: Nu metal is also considered an offshoot of this; in fact some of the early nu metal acts (such as Korn and Deftones began as avant-garde/experimental outfits. Also, in recent years, the few nu metal bands that have had continuous success have been reclassified as this.

Angrish: Some Nu-metal singers can become so intensely enraged that they start losing coherence and spitting into the mic (bonus points if they sound out of breath by the end of it). Overlaps with Singing Simlish below (something Jonathan Davis has broken down into an art-form).

Careful With That Axe: Many nu-metal songs consist of wild, throat-cracking, usually pissed-off screaming.

Cluster F-Bomb: Very, very common, especially with the more aggressive acts.

Darker and Edgier The genre can be viewed as a darker and heavier late 90s replacement for Grunge in the mainstream.

Lighter and Softer: At the same time, it's often viewed as this to metal. In general, you were much more likely to hear nu metal being played in a public setting than any other kind of metal. That includes places such as shopping malls and clothing stores such Hot Topic. This led to the derogatory Fan Nickname "mallcore".

Dead Horse Genre / Deader Than Disco: Many previous Nu-metal bands have moved away from the genre and into other styles such as Alternative Rock, Groove Metal, Electronic Music and Industrial Metal. Generally perceived as being "dead" in the eyes of mainstream American media, although it has a level of popularity overseas, where there was never a prejudice toward the genre, and in the American underground music scene. The death of nu metal could have been easily avoided, however, if it weren't for the music industry capitalizing on it and bands straying away from its original premise. Consequently, a few bands have learned from this and began rediscovering the genre's original concept, leading to some bands transitioning into experimental metal. It's starting to resurface a little in the form of revival acts (and various deathcore bands who proudly took influence from the genre before that; Suicide Silence and Emmure are some of the more obvious examples, and Whitechapel has also joined the party as of the self-titled), but those are still nowhere near as big as many of the acts in the genre got in their heyday, and aside from a few acts that simply got too big to disappear (Slipknot, Korn, and Linkin Park, primarily), most of the bands that still exist are playing to far smaller crowds in far smaller venues than they used to.

Dead Unicorn Trope: Looking at the list of qualities that are and aren't nu-metal mean that a completely pure nu-metal band probably doesn't exist outside of parody, which makes nu-metal either the widest or most narrow genre of all time:

"Nu-metal bands never have guitar solos, but some do" (This is actually only true of a handful of bands who just happen to be labeled nu-metal. Many famous nu-metal bands do feature guitar solos, abiet somewhat short ones. Even Limp Bizkit had a couple of brief guitar solos.)

"All nu-metal bands rap, but some don't" (Korn, most obviously, as well as System of a Down, Trapt, and Evanescence)

And even Korn made some use of rapping, as on the rap battle with Fred Durst "All in the Family" and guest vocals from Nas and Ice Cube

"Nu-metal bassists play slap technique, some play other styles, and some rarely, if ever, use the slap technique" (The Gazette)

"Some nu-metal bands play electronica (Linkin Park), some have a more industrial-bend (early Disturbed), while others use more classical arrangements (Evanescence)"

"Nu-metal vocalists either have a low, scratchy grunt (Slipknot, Soulfly) or a clean-sounding, boyish voice (Lostprophets)"

"Culturally, nu-metal lives on the gritty aggression of American machismo and yet some bands are influenced by foreign musical styles" (P.O.D., Ill Nino, Sepultura and Soulfly throw in Latino influences, while Dir en grey draw inspiration from traditional Japanese music)

"Nu-metal bands don't actually sound like metal, except when they do (Korn, Slipknot, and System of a Down etc.)"

Doing It for the Art: The nu metal revival bands of The New Tens are exactly this. Unlike bands at the height of nu metal's popularity, who were cashing in on a fad and/or using it to achieve mainstream success, the revival bands play nu metal because they genuinely like the music, even though they don't get much attention (though Issues, Butcher Babies, and King 810 have all seen some success, and In This Moment and Hollywood Undead got significantly bigger when they switched to it) and are often derided for the kind of music they play.

Epileptic Flashing Lights: Nu-metal music videos tend to take place in dark rooms (probably a dangerous-looking factory or Abandoned Warehouse) with this sort of lighting. May have been inspired by the video to Unsung by Helmetnote This is probably rooted in Nu-metal's connection with American tough guy culture; flashing lights, industrial imagery and schizophrenic camera editing have their place in the kind of movie trailers and wrestling events which Nu-metal often provided the soundtrack for.

Follow the Leader: This is how the genre became as oversaturated with artists as it did; plenty of kids who wanted to start a band would see Korn, Disturbed, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, or some other act moving tons of units and filling large venues, and they'd decide that they wanted a piece of the pie as well and would proceed to copy a famous act, get snatched up by Roadrunner or Sony BMG in about a year, provide one or two charting hits, and then vanish as quickly as they came. This trope also came into effect whenever an established metal group was experiencing a low point in their career and needed to bump up the money they were making to stay afloat, which very frequently led to their going this route.

Gateway Music: Are you a metalhead in his or her early-mid 20s? Deny all you want, but chances are good it's because of the bands listed above.

Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The genre is even much more popular in Latin America and East Asia than it was in the USA, most notably in Chile, where it was known as "Aggro-Metal" (From aggression, not agriculture); Japan, where it was partly responsible for bringing Visual Kei back in vogue; and the Philippines, where it influenced legions of indie OPM acts, and became a well respected and valid musical option among metalheads and rockers in general. Over there it didn't face much of the criticism it encountered in the USA, as most non-American Nu-Metal bands were independent acts that weren't profiting on a commercially viable fad, but rather exploring a new interesting sound that was the sound of a transitional generation and was worth paying attention to.

Although the fad and most of the bands faded into obscurity, it still has a considerable fanbase and some bands are still active. Outside the US, the genre is mostly free of the stigma that it once faced, and it is not rare to find music purists that give recognition to at least the most notable examples of the genre. Korn, Slipknot and Deftones are very popular in the countries mentioned above.

Harsh Vocals: The genre is filled with throaty pseudo-growls.note Though not all nu metal vocalists are incapable of true screaming; there are bands employ guttural death growls (Slipknot), high-pitched shrieks (Deftones), or any combination of these.

Heavy Metal: Although a lot of metalheads claim otherwise. It's probably not something you should bring up if you don't want to risk a Flame War.

The main argument against it is that the riffing styles and song structures bear very little similarity to actual metal and that the roots of the genre were more in alternative rock and grunge and carried very little connection to the metal scene, and that shouted vocals and downtuned guitars do not automatically equal metal; as far as they're concerned, it was called "metal" only because of clueless marketing departments and music journalists who had very little familiarity with the metal genre and were calling it "metal" because it fit in with their preconceived notions of what the genre was based on cultural stereotypes and very limited exposure.

On the other hand, three of Nu Metal's biggest influences (Alternative Metal, Groove Metal and Industrial Metal) are unquestionably metal, it's just that some of the more metal elements get kind of blurred in with the other less metal influences (like hip-hop and electronica). But even then, due to the wide range in bands, some of which barely resemble each other, its pretty much impossible to judge the true nature of the genre as a whole. Some bands that are labeled Nu Metal are clearly metal bands (Like Slipknot, Disturbed, or System of a Down) and they barely resemble the sound of bands like Linkin Park or Evanescence. It would probably be a much better idea to discuss a Nu Metal band's 'metalness' on a case by case basis

"Girl All The Bad Guys Want" by Bowling for Soup has the narrator lamenting his inability to get the rocker chick who's into Nu-metal. The video parodies "It's Been A While" by Staind and "Break Stuff" by Limp Bizkit and three Slipknot look-alikes show up near the end to beat up the lead singer who's dressed as Fred Durst.

"She likes the Godsmack and I like Agent Orange,

Her CD-changer's full of singers that are mad at their dad."

The 40 Greatest Nu-Metal Songs Of All Time (pages 1 and 2) seems to address several Nu-metal clichés.

Adam Rafalovich: Jonathan Davis, he had this interesting way of kind like whispering[...] he would bring his voice down really, really low[...] making you think he's in a mental institution. That you're seeing inside of his own head when he would offer these really whispery little discussions, and then to actually explode would take those songs to a whole other emotional level.

Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness: Most bands are a 6 or a 7, with the softer ones and post-grunge crossover acts going into 4-5 and some of the harder ones going into an 8. Bands that go up to 9 (e.g. Ill Nino note although their songs at this level are all after they moved away from nu-metal, Deftones, Nonpoint, Skindred), 10 (e.g. Celldweller, SikTh, Maximum The Hormone, Slipknot, DevilDriver) or 11 (e.g. Dir en grey, The Gazette, Enmure) are not unheard of, though.

Mohs Scale of Lyrical Hardness: Most bands range from a 7 to 9, with some examples going down to at least a 2. The most profane and explicit bands can go up to 10 or 11, but this is very rare, though bands such as Slipknot and The Gazette have written songs that would easily make it to those levels.

In fact, this trope is so strong, that when Dez Fafara of Coal Chamber went on to start the band DevilDriver, the band instantly became the new target for metalheads, which for the most part was not based on their music, but on Dez Fafara's past. This has often resulted in the band getting labeled as metalcore (see Spiritual Successor below), despite having little connection to the genre, being Groove Metal with a few elements of Melodic Death Metal. Dez stated that he created DevilDriver because he was disappointed on the direction his band was taking. That being said, their self-titled debut still fell within the perimeters of nu-metal, although it did have hints of the groove/melodeath fusion that would later become their signature; once Evan Pitts (who wrote the vast majority of the album) left, they made a Genre Shift to their current sound.

More than a few of the musicians from bands who heavily influenced the genre have slammed it as well, particularly Page Hamilton, Maynard James Keenan, Trent Reznor, and Mike Patton.

No True Scotsman: It's a pretty safe bet that if a nu metal band receives any kind of critical recognition, the critic in question will immediately point out three or four highly tenuous reasons as to why the band in question isn't really part of the genre. See Ensemble Darkhorse above.

One-Hit Wonder: One of the most commonly mocked things about the genre was the sheer amount of bands who would get snatched up by a label and release one charting hit (two if they were very lucky) before falling off the map. Many of these hits were 80s pop covers.

Popularity Polynomial: Now that 90s culture is once again in vogue, this is starting to take shape, between revival acts (Issues, King 810, Butcher Babies, In This Moment from Blood onward) being met with success and established acts releasing albums that hark back to their old sound (Slipknot, Linkin Park, Papa Roach, Staind). Furthermore, several deathcore acts (Emmure, Suicide Silence, Whitechapel, Upon a Burning Body) started infusing nu metal elements around the end of the 2000s and beginning of the 2010s, potentially foreshadowing this. It will probably never be half as popular as it was at the peak of its original run (and it didn't work out too well for Linkin Park), but it is slowly beginning to claw its way back from "trailer park music" to something approaching a culturally accepted genre once again, not that it hasn't been met with a fair amount of opprobrium as well.

Public Medium Ignorance: Explaining which bands are and aren't Nu-metal can be frustrating to genre fanatics. Most people lump Alternative Metal, Funk Metal, Rap Metal, Industrial Metal, Hard Rock and, occasionally, Post-Grunge, Gothic Metal and Emo (the last thanks to a combination of the Hate Dumb's stereotypical views on the Visual Kei trend and vitriolic attitudes towards anything that can be seen as "overtly emotional" and "damaging to the real image of metal") under the genre (in many ways, Nu-metal has become the catch-all term for modern pop-metal and hard rock). Whether it's because the genre is ill-defined or just contradicts its own characteristics, this may be one of the reasons why the tag is so controversial (see Dead Unicorn Trope above). In other words, many of the bands listed on this page probably aren't Nu-metal on a conventional level, but with how often they get tossed onto the pile, they may as well be (don't be offended if you see Dead By April, Incubus, Puddle of Mudd or Trapt being called Nu-metal).

This, in turn, is the most likely reason why the genre was tagged as metal in the first place despite its very thin ties to the rest of the metal genre, as it fit in nicely with established cultural stereotypes of what metal supposedly was.

Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: A few bands, particularly Deftones and Slipknot are well-respected by critics, some of which argue that they were never a part of the genre to begin with. In other countries, where the prejudice never existed, bands are proud to claim they were influenced by Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot and other Nu Metal bands. A few bands have been saved by leaving the nu metal scene and shifting to more technical music styles

Seinfeld Is Unfunny: Songs and bands important to Nu-metal will probably never receive much respect after how their concepts were driven into the ground. Outside the U.S. however, they are much more respected.

Sensory Abuse: It's everywhere in the genre; instruments drowned in a sea of effects, to the typically deranged singing, to the seizure-inducing visuals used in many nu metal videos and lives, and so on.

Song Association: Many nu metal bands owe their popularity to being associated with certain TV shows/video games/movies in which their songs have appeared.

Spiritual Successor: Metalcore, at least in terms of it being The Scrappy of the metal world. However, metalcore is more respected than Nu-metal was - it is almost universally agreed to at least be metal.

Deathcore seems to be even more of a spiritual successor to Nu-metal. It's even more hated than metalcore (though most metalheads still agree it's metal), and is starting to become as hated as Nu-metal, largely for the same reasons that nu-metal was hated (bands worming their way onto otherwise solid bills, obnoxious ubiquity of them in local metal scenes, frequent reliance on obnoxious gimmicks, exceedingly juvenile lyrical content, tendency for once-respected acts to go in this direction in the interest of sales, fans primarily consisting of annoying and immature wiggers). Quite a few deathcore bands have even been acknowledging nu-metal acts as influences.

Experimental metal is also considered as a spiritual successor; at least this is what nu metal was supposed to have been (Genre-Busting metal). If only it weren't horribly exploited by the industry as a marketable musical formula, it could have developed into this and opened up many creative opportunities for metal artists. Possibly justified by the fact that many well-respected nu metal bands have gotten more experimental as they matured, which can be chalked up to their no longer having to please industry heads or the Ozzfest second stage crowd; when they're not fighting for the allowance dollar, there's a lot more room to do what they actually want to do.

Squick: Squick is a popular subject of Nu-metal. Singing about cuts, bleeding, and illnesses is standard. The overuse of "under my skin" (and variants thereof) is easy to spot.

Strictly Formula: Whatever that formula is, the biggest criticism of the genre is how indistinguishable most of the bands and songs are from one another.

Stylistic Suck: Some nu metal bands deliberately cash in on being hated by metalheads by putting out material that seemingly serve no purpose other than pissing off listeners. Common signs of this trope in the genre include unintelligibly screaming/singing vocalists, strong tendencies towards Three Chords and the Truth, excessive use of electronics and/or other forms of Sensory Abuse (dubstep, industrial and noise sounds are popular choices for electronic sounds), immature and/or nonsensical lyric writing, and so on)

Suddenly Shouting: A commonplace practice, mainly due to the fusion of softer vocals with vicious screams.

Three Chords and the Truth: Syncopated, rhythmically-driven power chord riffs are common. A few bands (most notably Deftones) use Meshuggah-influenced riffs consisting of only two or three notes. Lead guitar work isn't too complicated either - most solos are just high-pitched droning notes drenched in effects. Bass and drum work, however, avert this trope for the most part, as bass solos and heavily syncopated drum beats are fairly common.

What Could Have Been: If it weren't for Nu-metal's genre salad being perceived as a marketable formula, Alternative metal and metal as a whole could've seen the kind of pan-cultural experimentalism only enjoyed by Progressive Metal becoming a cultural phenomenon (Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly at a major level). Sadly, most metal purists are scared for life at the idea of even touching Nu-metal's wackiness (and by extension, Alt-metal's wackiness). When Nu-metal fell, it (nearly) took Alt-metal, Prog metal and Avant-garde along with it.

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